On the second day in the southern Austrian metropolis of Villach, a street music festival was taking place. I took some photos, naturally.
Hol18: The Sound of Villach
music photography
The Gig Economy 2: Lock Horns
A few years back I did the first photo shoot of a death metal band, Lock Horns – and they became the subject of this first blog post.
In June 2018, they released their first album Molon Labe – spotify link – and launched it at a home town gig in Bangor, Co Down. The band were sounding and looking magnificent with a great set showcasing much of the album.
I used the usual Canon full frame digital with various prime lenses – I brought the Olympus OM20 with Tri-X with an idea to shoot on film. But mingling with a metal audience doesn’t lend itself to manual focussing and careful metering, so digital it was.
Gig Economy 1: Paper Dogs
Sometimes shooting a gig, especially in a small venue with manky lighting and a lot of shouty drunk people half your age can get you questioning your photography. Then occasionally there’s a band who just hit the spot, visually and musically you’d want to photograph them again and again. Paper Dogs are a 4 piece from Belfast with a very accesible hard rock/funky/bluesy sound with bit of Hendrix, Jeff Healy, Thin Lizzy and many more.
The band are led from the front by lead guitarist and vocalist, Chris Rooney. Looking like a young John Power from Cast (to these old eyes anyway), he’s a dynamic presence and a performer with a bit of class.
The rest of the band, while not as dynamic visually, perform as an exceptionally tight unit. And with a style that looks effortless, they’re easy to photograph – lighting not withstanding. The following shot of drummer Kris Young broke the no-flash rule – it was that or nothing as he was out of range of all the stage lighting
The band’s EP, “The Lost Art of Conversation” is on Spotify – definitely worth a listen and there are some more shots on The Flickr.
Kit: Canon 5D, 50mm, 28mm and 85mm lenses
Lightroom, Color Efex and Silver Efex Pro.
(and a Speedlite 450 EXii….)
